December 13, 2006

Currently, Georgia has nine offensive line commits. That doesn't include the always mysterious Clifton Geathers, who may end up at another school, at another position (DE) or both. It also doesn't include the highly touted Chris Little who still has UGA in his top three.

Recently, some Gator fans were among the many UGA rivals commenting on our OL heavy class. Some folks question the decision to bring on so many Jucos. Others question the over emphasis of one position in one class. Others are looking for a way to spin this as a negative. One of the Gator site moderators was asked about UGA's OL class. His response:

I commented on this a day or two ago. These nine linemen will end up being spread out between three classes, possibly even four. The juniors, true freshmen and redshirts who will be freshmen the following year. This is a smart way to catch up on years when recruiting went poorly or in Georgia's case where they had some bad luck getting kids qualified. Richt is accustomed to having excellent players up front. He's making up for lost time. They're recruited well at other position the last two years. This shouldn't hurt them at all. They're obviously in good shape at DL and QB.

IMHO, Richt is the most consistently successful recruiter in the SEC. He knows what he is doing.

He makes an excellent point about class separation; although, the players will definitely be spread across four classes with an outside shot at being spread across five classes if a non-qualifier rears his head. It's also a great class because so many will enroll early including all the Jucos, at least one Prep Schooler and some of the high school kids.

Other than Bean Anderson, I'm hesitant to tag anyone in that group as a definite redshirt or contributor. However, just looking at body types...I'd lean towards Boling being the most likely redshirt.

With only five OL sure to return from this year's team (Chester Adams, Fernando Velasco, Chris Davis, Josh Davis, Kevin Perez and Seth Watts), this is Coach Callaway's most critical signing class since his first one in Athens. We need big things, and we need them right away.

10
comments:

I've been getting bombarded by my GT friends about the JUCO lineman and I've given them the same arguement that you've listed out below. If you decide to waive your "anti-JUCO" philisophy, then take as many as possible so you DON'T have to be in this position again soon. That (IMHO) is the genius of taking all 3 OL + putting the hard sell on Chris Little. We will finally have 3 deep on the OL without any fear or trepidation.